DEEPLOCAL HIRES FORMER FAKE LOVE CEO, CHIEF CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST, AND VP OF CLIENT PARTNERSHIPS, BRINGING TOGETHER CREATIVE TECH’S ORIGINAL EXPERIENTIAL INNOVATORS.
Pittsburgh, PA (September 27, 2022)—Award-winning creative technology and experience design company Deeplocal hires former Fake Love CEO Josh Horowitz as CCO, former Fake Love Chief Creative Technologist Blair Neal as VP of Creative Technology, and former Fake Love VP of Client Partnerships Miranda Martell as Head of Partnership Strategy & Growth. Deeplocal and Fake Love pioneered the role of creative technology in experiential marketing, initially as competitor agencies; now, as collaborators under one roof, the team is focused on the future of experience innovation.
As brands look to engage their audiences beyond the mobile screen, real-word richly interactive experiences are the rising trend for brand building. With the addition of Josh, Blair, Miranda, and multiple other key hires over the past year, Deeplocal is expanding capabilities across strategy, design, engineering, and creative technology. The company, now 125 people and growing—with team members based in Pittsburgh and throughout North America, will continue to specialize in using physical space, tangible design, and playful electromechanics to showcase innovative brands in the real world, exploring new ways to unite digital technology with analog form factors to create first-of-their-kind branded experiences.
After spinning out of Carnegie Mellon University in 2006, Deeplocal disrupted the marketing industry with Nike Chalkbot, the first use of robotics in advertising. More than a decade later, the team continues to challenge the norms of marketing with inventions that are often world’s firsts. From socks that automatically pause your Netflix show when you fall asleep to a full-scale amusement park ride powered by Google Assistant, Deeplocal’s integrated team of creatives and engineers can dream it up—and build it.
“For 16 years, we’ve operated by being a little bit subversive,” says Nathan Martin, CEO of Deeplocal. “The most important thing we’ve done as a company is bring together interesting people—artists, inventors, misfits, makers. We have aerospace engineers building interactive displays made out of arcade buttons and electromechanical flowers. We have technologists from Disney Research and the Department of Defense. We have a visiting Experience Designer from The Flaming Lips. There’s no other company in the world that brings this range of talent and perspectives to the table. Josh, Blair, and Miranda joining Deeplocal from Fake Love is a testament to our influence; we’re attracting award-winning talent from a company that we’ve respected and admired for a long time.”
“Fake Love and Deeplocal were key players in defining the impact of creative technology and experience design on brand marketing,” says Josh Horowitz, CCO of Deeplocal. “After leading Fake Love independently and then at the New York Times, this next step feels like a homecoming. I’m excited to be a part of Deeplocal’s growth and look forward to bringing additional digital and virtual capabilities and global relationships to the table.”
Deeplocal has built a world-class client roster including Google, Meta, TikTok, Netflix, Shopify, Doodles, and others. To best support these clients, the company has three dedicated business units: (1) Events & Experiences, experiential marketing in service of brand moments, campaigns, and events; (2) Permanent Exhibits & Spaces, interactive exhibits and environments that tell brand stories in architectural spaces; and (3) a product division for Gumband, a first-of-its-kind OS and management platform created for interactive experiences. All three units are driven by Deeplocal’s history of invention and provide specialized value to clients and career growth opportunities for staff.
Combining integrated creative and engineering expertise with the ability to efficiently manage, scale, and measure the impact of custom interactive environments using Gumband, Deeplocal is uniquely positioned to help brands reshape the future of experiential marketing and bring web3 to the real world.
ABOUT DEEPLOCAL
Deeplocal is an award-winning creative technology and experience design company headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA with employees based across North America. A spin-off of Carnegie Mellon University with expertise in engineering, design, and creative strategy, Deeplocal invents interactive experiences for global brands, helping them tell stories and connect with audiences in new and unexpected ways. Deeplocal’s work bridges the physical and digital worlds and has been featured in Fast Company, Wired, The New York Times, USA Today, Good Morning America, and more. Select awards include Cannes Lion Grand Prix, One Show Golden Pencil, and Ad Age Creativity Innovators of the Year. https://www.deeplocal.com/
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